Alvaro Morata is up and running for Chelsea.
Nearly a week on from attracting a fair bit of criticism for his substitute appearance in the Community Shield, the Spanish international made his home debut for the club, again coming on from the bench in Chelsea’s Premier League opener against Burnley.
Replacing Michy Batshuayi with nearly an hour gone, Morata entered the game with his team 3-0 down after a nightmarish first half. Gary Cahill had been given a straight red for the champions after 15 minutes; this was then followed by two Sam Vokes goals either side of a strike from Stephen Ward.
Morata did manage to give the majority of those in Stamford Bridge hope, however.
With Willian receiving the ball on the right, the former Real Madrid striker managed to lose his marker in the box, guiding his diving header into the far corner.
As we always tell you at this point, we’re not permitted to show you footage of the goal. We can however, give you an idea of how it came about by showing you a series of screengrabs. Here, these should keep you going until Match of the Day…
Chelsea, despite their numerical advantage, worried Burnley for the remainder of the game. Although Cesc Fabregas was later sent off for the champions, they still managed to pull another goal back from David Luiz with minutes of regulation time to go.
In the end, there was no third goal for the nine men. Chelsea begin the new season with a surprise defeat.
